Only fools thinks they are right all of the time….

Writing Updates for 2016

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In 2015, I set a goal to post a poem a week on my blog and was able to satisfy that goal without much difficulty. In 2016, I decided not to do it, since it I had switched my attention to fiction and didn’t want to be encumbered by poetry. However, by not having to strive for that goal, I didn’t write as much poetry as I had in the prior two years. I still ended up with about 150 poems, but I didn’t write any poems at all in January, June, or July, and only 8 total for August, September, and October. In fact, if it weren’t for a few poetry binges in March, April, and December I wouldn’t even have enough for a respectable collection. So, I’m making the following New Years’ resolutions for poetry in 2017:

Write an average of 5 poems a week.

Post one new poem each Saturday, beginning on Jan. 7.

As for fiction, last year did not go as I had hoped it would even though I wrapped up a short story collection and wrote three novels (two of which were rather challenging ones to get through). I had intended to write at least one more book in the Aftermath series but came nowhere close to doing it. So, here’s my resolution for fiction this year:

Finish Books 2-4 of Aftermath.

My self-imposed schedule for accomplishing this goal is:

Finish the first draft of Book 2: I Will Be King by the end of March.

Finish the first draft of Book 3: The Dwarf Wars by the end of June.

Finish the first draft of Book 4: Symptata’s Curse by the end of the year.

Note that I did not say I would publish any of these books on this schedule; rather, I want to have first drafts of them done by these dates. I may need to have all three first drafts done before tackling the final drafts of any of them. There are connections between them that may need to be taken into account during the revision process.

At the moment, these resolutions seem reasonable, given my present circumstances, so check for updates on my progress on Saturdays when I post the poems.

Here is my last poem for the year. It seems fitting to post it on New Year’s Eve, a time of reflection. I wrote it earlier this Fall when I was discussing Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy with my philosophy students. If you’re not familiar with that work, you may still have heard his famous saying: “I think, therefore, I am.” (Cogito ergo sum.)

I Am — Are You?

As long as
I am
thinking
I am
must it not be
true?

But what
of you?

Do you
exist
apart from me
when
I am
not thinking
of you?

Or
are you
a part of me
that exists
only
when I am
thinking
of you
and me?

Since I posted final grades, here’s what I’ve been doing with writing:

I wrote some poems and reorganized this year’s poetry collection a few times. I’ll have it ready to publish during the first week in January.

I’m going to wait to publish Installments on the other sites until I have the poetry collection ready and have updated the front matter for all of my books to include a list of all of my publications. It will be simpler to upload them all to each site at the same time.

I’ve jotted down some more notes for I Will Be King and need to integrate them into the novel’s outline. I’ll start writing it after I get my Spring courses ready (probably after the first of the year), but it doesn’t quite feel right yet. I’ve learned to trust my subconscious when I feel this way, and I need to think about the story without distractions to figure out what’s holding me back.

I’m still thinking about the good vs. evil fantasy epic. I may be able to integrate it into the world of Skein as a sequel to the Angus the Mage and Aftermath series, but I don’t know if it will work. I have to write the rest of the books in Aftermath before I’ll know that, and you’ve seen how sluggish I’ve been on that.

Anyway, it looks like I have a lot of grunt work to do between Christmas and New Years, so my next update will be in 2017. In the meantime:

Happy Holidays!

When I checked to make sure “Please Don’t Eat the Penguins” was no longer enrolled in KDP Select so I could republish it on the other sites (it should be available on them this weekend or early next week), I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of reviews. They were both good reviews (one 5-Star and one 4-Star), and I took the time to reply to both of them instead of commenting on them in my blog.

Installments is also no longer enrolled in KDP Select, and I plan to publish it soon on the other sites. I might do it this weekend, but I’m not sure. I didn’t go visit my family over Thanksgiving, and I’m thinking now would be a good time for a little road trip. If I don’t publish it this weekend, it will be one of the first things I do after I finish grading.

I have my poetry book more-or-less ready to publish for next year, but it won’t be finalized until Dec. 31. (I have to get the cover, but it shouldn’t take too long.) I might write a few poems before the end of the year, since it’s a bit shorter than the last two collections. We’ll see. (Even without writing much poetry this year, I have over 100 poems. Many of them are short ones, though.)

One of these days, I’m going to update the front matter of my books (the list of books I’ve published, etc.), reformat the early print versions of my books to correct a few technical issues, and create a Facebook page for my writing. I still might revise my Angus series a little bit, but I haven’t decided on that yet, either. It might be a good way for me to get back into the feel of writing and the right mindset for writing the Aftermath books. We’ll see. Same with incorporating the poems I’ve written in the past few years into my earlier collections and republishing them as second editions: We’ll see.

As for writing, I’ve jotted down more notes for my Aftermath series, and I think I’ll be ready to write I Will Be King once I get through grading finals and posting my students’ final grades. (I’ll have most of it done by the end of next weekend.) I’m glad I’ve waited to start working on it, since some of the ideas I’ve had recently will make it a better book than it would have been if I had written it sooner.

I’ve thought more about that good vs. evil series I mentioned awhile ago, but I’m a long way from writing it. I have an unreliable narrator that I like (Twig), but I need other characters, a basic plot outline, world-building, etc. I plan to spend A LOT of time mapping out this series before I start working on it. Reading the Harry Potter series helped me to understand better how the plot for a series should be developed. I only had a generally idea of what I was doing when I wrote my Angus the Mage series (it sort of developed on its own), and I want to have a strong idea of what I’m going to do before I start the first book of my next fantasy series. (My Aftermath series doesn’t count, since it is more like four separate-but-connected novels than a series building to a single climactic event. With the exception of the first book, each one should stand fairly well on its own.

One last thing: I bought a second computer to make it easier to write while I am “watching” television programs on my computer (or letting Slotomania run on autopilot). I think it will help, once I figure out how to use Microsoft Edge and adjust to Windows 10. It will also make it easier to work with my students in online classes and manage my prep work from home. Unless, of course, my old computer craps out on me, which it could easily do. (It’s old enough that it has Windows XP….)

That’s enough of an update. The next one should be in a couple of weeks, when I intend to start on I Will Be King.

The semester is winding down and I’m thinking about getting back into writing again. I’m not quite ready to resume work on Book 2 of Aftermath yet, though; I still have a week of instruction and another week or two of exams before I can shift my focus away from teaching and toward writing. So I decided to write a few poems to get the creative juices going. “Sisyphus” is one of those poems, and I’ll probably post a few others in December to close out the year. Next year, I think I’ll resume my goal of posting a poem a week (even if it is one from a prior year), but I’m not going to commit to that yet. We’ll see.

Sisyphus

The trail ahead of me
was behind me
yesterday.

Each step I take
retraces the same steps
I took to get here.

Up the mountain.
Down the mountain.
Always the same view.

The boulder—. my constant companion,. my only friend—
never complains.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything, mainly because of midterms and having nothing much to update on my writing. My white board is accumulating a cluster of post-it notes, though. I’ve developed a bit more of the plot outline for my next book and jotted down a few story ideas, but that’s about it.

I’m still toying with the possibility of writing a good vs. evil fantasy series, but I haven’t talked myself into it yet. I have a few ideas for characters and setting, but not much more than that. If I set it in the same world as my other fantasy novels, I’ll need to work up a better historical timeline than I have at the moment and decide whether it precedes these novels / series or follows after them. I’ll also need to decide on a name for the world, and I’m leaning toward calling it Skein. (The other option is Knittingham, but that’s a bit of a cheesy pun. It would work for The Drunken Wizards but not the other books.)

I spent the last week and a half dealing with allergies and sinus issues, and then preparing for midterms. This week and next, my students will be taking those midterms and I’ll be reporting midterm grades. If it goes normally for the Fall semester, there will be quite a few students in the 50-65% range on the exams, but I’m always hopeful students will use the review to help them do better than that. I’ll find out soon enough….

Needless to say, I haven’t written anything of note during this time. However, you may remember that I read the Harry Potter series earlier this year to find out why it has such widespread appeal. I’ve been thinking about it and may take a stab at writing something similar after I have finished my Aftermath series. I might be able to work a world-shaking battle between good and evil into the history of the world where my Angus the Mage and Aftermath series are set, but I think it may be better to build a new world for it. Either way, I’ve jotted down some notes for characters and potential ways to link it to my other series. We’ll see how it germinates over the next year or so.

In the meantime, here are a couple of short poems that I wrote earlier this year: